From Inksters Solicitors

Vicarious Liability in Data Protection Law

This Morning Mr Justice Langstaff, sitting in the High Court of Justice, handed down a judgment in the case of Various Claimants –v- Wm Morrisons Supermarket PLC [2017] EWHC 3113 (QB). In March 2014 the Defenders, Morrisons, revealed that its payroll data for the majority of its staff had been stolen. The data which had been taken had been published online on a file sharing website earlier that year; it was discovered in March when copies of the data were sent anonymously to three newspapers together with a link to the online published version. The investigation that followed resulted in Andrew Skelton, formerly a senior Manager with the company, being convicted of fraud at Bradford Crown Court in 2015. Mr Skelton was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.

In total around 100,000 of the Defenders’ 120,000 employees were affected by the actions of Mr Skelton. Of those, 5,518 employees raised proceedings in the High Court claiming compensation for a breach a statutory duty (under the Data Protection act 1998) and also at common law. The Claimants’ primary position before the court was that the Defenders were directly liable. However, they argued that, in the alternative, the Defenders were vicariously liable.

In a judgment which is 59 pages long and contains 198 paragraphs, Langstaff J, dismissed the direct liabiality argument; however, found that the Defenders were vicariously liable. This is an important judgement in the field of privacy and data protection and it is one that employers should certainly be aware of. The court has found a data controller liable to the claimants arising out of a criminal enterprise by one of their employees. It is certainly worthy of much fuller analysis and I will provide such an analysis on this blog in due course; however, it is a lengthy judgment and it will take some time to properly read and digest.

It should be noted that this may not be the end of this litigation; Morrisons have been given permission by Langstaff J to appeal the finding on vicarious liability to the Court of Appeal if they so wish. We await to see whether Morrisons decide to appeal the decision.

If you would like advice or assistance in connection with Data Protection/Privacy, or if you would like advice and assistance with any other Information Law matter we would be pleased to hear from you. You can contact Alistair Sloan on 0345 450 0123. Alternatively, you can send him an E-mail.